The Southern Debate over Slavery
About the Book
An incomparably rich source of period information, the second volume of The Southern Debate over Slavery offers a representative and extraordinary sampling of the thousands of petitions about issues of race and slavery that southerners submitted to county courts between the American Revolution and Civil War. These petitions, filed by slaveholders and nonslaveholders, slaves and free blacks, women and men, abolitionists and staunch defenders of slavery, constitute a uniquely important primary source. The collection records with great immediacy and minute detail the dynamics and legal restrictions that shaped southern society."When your Orator returned Home he found his Wife in Tears, and upon inquiery of the cause, she informed your Orator that the aforesaid Haley had Grossly abused and insulted her, and amongst other terms of opprobriousness had called his said Wife a Damned Liar--upon which your Orator pusued the said Haley . . . and upon overtaking him, inflicted Several blows, for the gross and degrading insult offered his Wife--and your Orator hopes that such a State of insubbordination in a man of his Colour, would well justify the Deed."--from "Joseph B. Abrahams to the Chancery Court, Henrico County, Virginia, 1806"
About the Author
Loren Schweninger is a professor emeritus of history and Elizabeth Rosenthal Excellence Professor at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. His books include Appealing for Liberty: Freedom Suits in the South.Also by this author
Reviews
"The documents reveal a number of complicated truths about the system of slavery. . . . Useful material for both lectures and discussions, the petitions collected here will serve as a valuable teaching resource."--The Journal of Southern History"For serious scholars of both American slavery and pre-Civil War America this volume is essential."--H-CivWar
"A terrific addition to our knowledge about slavery."--The North Carolina Historical Review
"Schweninger has compiled another extraordinary volume of primary source documents revealing the scope and details of the experience of slavery in the US South. . . . Highly recommended."--Choice
Blurbs
"Documentary history at its best, one that is certain to expand and revise our understanding of the critical role of race and slavery in defining the South and indeed the nation. Far more successfully than any other work, The Southern Debate over Slavery provides an inside view of how the slave system in the antebellum South actually worked and demonstrates the extraordinary degree to which it pervaded and shaped the society and thought of the region."--Willard B. Gatewood, author of Aristocrats of Color: The Black Elite and Preachers, Pedagogues and Politicians: The Evolution Controversy in North Carolina, 1920-1927
"I don't know of another source that provides students with a better sense of the complexity and texture of antebellum race relations and the on-the-ground operation of the institution of slavery. Schweninger has produced a second volume drawn from county court records, which has the same eye-opening, and eye-popping, qualities of the first volume. Indeed, because the county court records are even less accessible and have never been mined systematically, their significance is all the greater both for beginning students and senior scholars."--Ira Berlin, author of Generations of Captivity: A History of Slaves in the United States
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